Safari Field Guide students on a night drive in Kakadu National Park

Safari Guide Training began in Africa; born from the African Safari industry. It was developed to teach nature guides and get their skills to a specific and high standard when working in bush and taking tourists out.

A safari guides job is to interpret the bush/wilderness and its wildlife and ecosystems to the guest and providing the guests with a well-rounded and interesting experience. Nature field guides also help to spread the conservation message and teach people the importance of preserving National Parks and Game Reserves and wildlife. In addition, it teaches the guide how to be respectful to the ecosystem and its wildlife when conducting their job, and perhaps, most importantly; how to be safe (safety is a big priority in the industry).

Once you’ve experienced the safari field guide training, whether it is for the certificate or the experience  that goes with it, you’ll look at all nature in a completely different light and start noticing things you’ve perhaps not noticed in the past. If you’re a nature enthusiast, then this is definitely something you must try.

The African Safari Guide Training System

Training as a guide basically goes through a number of stages, beginning at the minimum required qualification, level 1. In Africa that is regulated by the Field Guide Association of Southern Africa (FGASA for short) and is known as the FGASA level 1 course. This is the minimum required qualification to work in some capacity in the safari industry; starting as a basic guide in a vehicle. FGASA qualifications go up to level 3 and then also branch out further into specialist fields as guides move up in the industry. The level 1 course is for anyone wishing to go into the industry and is designed to teach people from scratch.

The 28 day level 1 courses immediately get students in tune with the bush. The camps are in remote and wild locations with wildlife free to roam as it pleases and learning is done out in the bush via daily bush walks and also game drives that the students themselves have to carry out and learn how to do. It is because of the intimacy students get with the wilderness and those experiences that come with it, that these courses have become very popular as an educational experience and a trip of a lifetime. It beats any safari holiday hands down and nothing will ever come close to it.

The Australian Safari Guide System

Afreco work cloely with EcoTraining Australia and all of our customers receive a reduced price when booking with us. It’s roughly a 5% discount, which makesquite a saving on the cost.

In a very similar way, guiding is also carried out in the vast open and very diverse ecosystems of the Australian continent. Guides here do virtually the same job – just in a different and in equally stunning wilderness areas. Now Australia is embracing the ethics of guiding and raising their standards too with safari guide courses modelled almost identically on the proven South African system. This will provide guests on safari or outback adventures in Australia with a safer and more informative experience. Kakadu National Park lends itself naturally to being the classroom for this learning.

January 2011 update

During this current wet season, we have made a couple of improvements to our Cert III course which will benefit all future students.

After listening to the feedback we received over the past couple of years, we decided that the 28 day structure was a bit too long and many people had trouble taking that amount of time off, so we will now be shortening the cert III course to a 7 and 10 day option.

Incorporated into the course will be online modules to be completed via correspondence which free’s up time during the practical 7 or 10 day course to concentrate on the flora, fauna, geology and indigenous aspects of the region.

But the best news about this is that from now on we can train anywhere in Australia, and this year we will be trialling 4 new locations in Strahan Tasmania, Flinders Ranges SA, Coburg Peninsula NT and Kangaroo Valley NSW!

To find out more about the big improvements to the Cert III course please.

So what are you waiting for?

Whether you are seriously thinking of doing this as a career or just wishing to have a very unique, and believe us, incredible and unforgettable experience of a lifetime, then this is for you!

info@afrecoaustralia.com